What happened in subway: Photographer details tragedy

Dec. 5, 2012
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by Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY

by Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY

New York Post freelance photographer R. Umar Abbasi was on the subway platform when Queens resident Ki-Suck Han was pushed to the tracks and killed by an oncoming train Monday afternoon. Here is what happened, according to Abbasi:

Abbasi entered the 49th Street subway station.

While waiting for the train, he saw Han fall onto the tracks. People shouted. A man ran by.

Abbasi ran toward Han and the oncoming train with his camera shooting and flashing. He says he used the flash to signal the driver to stop the train.

The train continued to pull in. Abbasi says he couldn't reach Han in time to pull him out but that others were closer. "I would say on the 49th Street exit there was probably 30 or 40 people, and any one of them could have run and grabbed Mr. Han," he says.

Abbasi estimates that it was 22 seconds before the train hit Han. "All these things they happen so fast and it happens in a haze," he says.

A doctor tried unsuccessfully to revive Han after he was pulled from the tracks.

Abbasi talked with police at the subway station to recount what he saw. He then went with officers to the nearby New York Post offices where they could view the images from his camera.

Police and Post photo editors viewed the pictures. The Post made copies for police.

Abbasi left the Post offices not knowing how the Post would use the pictures. He first viewed them all later that night. "I couldn't sleep at all," he says.

The next day, the Post put one of the photos on its cover with the headline "Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die." Underneath is a photo of Han on the track and the word "DOOMED."